Watch the video below for the inside story, or skip below to read it. The video can also be viewed on YouTube at https://youtu.be/-jsmYf4osR8.
Throughout April in the Back of Beyond is another story inspired by fact. The main character, Hayley Hunter,
is a writer that is researching her family’s history, beginning with her
ancestor’s migration to Ulster from Scotland who became involved in O’Doherty’s
Rebellion.
These scenes are based on my creative nonfiction book, Checkmate: Clans and Castles, which was
released in 2017 by Drake Valley Press. In Checkmate,
my own ancestor, William Neely, arrived in Ulster with William Stewart. Their
land bordered on Cahir O’Doherty’s Inishowen Peninsula, separated only by the
lough. When Cahir set fire to Derry and began O’Doherty’s Rebellion, it would
require my ancestor to make a choice: whether to fight for King James against
the uprising or side with the Irish that had lived and ruled that region for
over a thousand years. Checkmate was
the result of years of painstaking research and I attempted to remain faithful
to the facts.
Though
the battle of Derry depicted in Checkmate
occurred in 1608, it would not be the first and far from the last. The city was
rebuilt through London private donations and renamed Londonderry. Today, more
than 400 years later, it continues to be a city divided between those loyal to
Britain and largely Protestant (unionists or loyalists) versus those fighting
for a united Ireland that are largely Catholic (republicans or nationalists).
The ideological war between the two factions was originally those loyal to
Britain versus those loyal to Ireland, but it became a religious war as well,
fueled by zealous ministers and priests. The city is often referred to as the
“slash city” Londonderry/Derry because the republican/nationalist Irish do not
recognize the name “London” in their city, it having been named Derry centuries
earlier, prior to England’s invasion.
During
the writing of this book, tensions increased in Ulster—most notably Derry and
Belfast. A journalist was killed covering a violent uprising in Derry and
several Catholic churches were burned. The increase in violence was attributed
to Brexit, which could possibly lead to checkpoints and guard posts between
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which had unfairly targeted
Catholics in decades before the Good Friday Agreement and the removal of those
border walls.
A couple of weeks ago, I announced the release of my 23rd book, April in the Back of Beyond. In case you missed the blurb, here it is below followed by one of three true stories that inspired the book.
Writer Hayley Hunter has arrived in Ireland to complete a book
on Irish history. When she discovers the old carriage house she is renting is
haunted, she is determined to uncover the truth behind the burned ruins of a
nearby manor house and the abandoned British barracks it overlooks.
With the
assistance of Shay Macgregor, an Irish historian, her quest will take her to
1919 and the Irish War for Independence, exposing the murders of two young men
and why their mother, April Crutchley, refuses to leave the back of beyond even
in death.
With a budding romance and the opportunity to begin life anew, Hayley
finds her own life is now in jeopardy as she gets closer to a truth the
villagers have long sought to bury.
Watch the video below or at https://youtu.be/zAq9XUd4vJQ for the true story that inspired the book, or continue reading it below the video:
While
researching Irish history for a series on my Neely ancestors, I came across the
story of two teenage boys who were murdered in Ireland in 1919. Their family
had been in the country for generations and by all accounts, they were admired
and valued in their original home, but they relocated to a larger estate in
what would turn out to be a horrifically fatal mistake.
Unlike
their original home where Catholics and Protestants coexisted, their new home
was in the middle of a war zone. The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and RIC
Special Forces (better known as the Black and Tans for their mismatched
uniforms) were fighting against those campaigning for Irish independence, such
as the Fenian Brotherhood and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), the
forerunner of the IRA (Irish Republican Army). Their new home, like the one
portrayed in April in the Back of Beyond, overlooked British barracks and when the two
teenage boys informed their neighbors they were not allowed to trespass on
their property, they were shot and killed and their home burned to the ground.
The
story, however, did not end there; it was only the beginning of a nightmare
that would culminate in their mother suffering from severe emotional trauma,
having tried vainly to save her sons from bleeding to death while their home
and all their possessions burned. The true attack was particularly vicious, the
shots delivered so they would suffer at least a day before dying; it was so
imprinted on my mind as I learned of it that I was unable to replicate the
savagery in April in the Back of Beyond out of respect for my readers. The information
regarding the sale of their home is accurate as well as their migration to
Australia, where the family’s descendants continue to live today.
I did not feel comfortable placing the home in my book in the same
county as the actual events took place, so literary license was used to move
the location of the house, carriage house and British barracks. Only the
barracks survive today as an abandoned property, a relic of World War I. The
names have also been changed for both the victims and the perpetrators as
descendants of both are still alive today.
The Inishowen Peninsula rests at the northwestern corner of
Ireland, a wild, untamed landscape with craggy rocks upon which the Atlantic
Ocean whips and the winds pummel. It lies within County Donegal, one of the
nine counties of the ancient Irish province known as Ulster and the location of
my historical book, Clans and Castles,
the first of the Checkmate series.
Two royal proclamations—one in 1606 and the other in 1611—sought
to abolish the Catholic Church of which most native Irish belonged, and ordered
that all Mass priests be banished from Ireland. The priests went underground,
living in caves or harbored by parishioners; discovery could mean imprisonment
or death.
One brave Catholic Friar, Friar Hegarty, remained on the
Inishowen Peninsula, tending to parishioners from Fahan—near the site of one of
Cahir O’Doherty’s castles at Inch Island—to Desertegney, a combined area of
more than 32,000 acres. At one point, he lived in a hut secluded in the heavily
wooded area of Lisnakelly on the River Foyle; at other times, he found isolated
caves in which to live. His congregation and his family provided him with food
and necessities until 1632, when his own brother-in-law is said to have
betrayed him to the Protestant authorities, English and Scotsmen that
immigrated to Ulster during The Plantation Era of King James I.
As word traveled to Friar Hegarty that arrest was imminent,
he was given a white horse to make his escape. If he could make it to
Rathmullen by traveling the southern edge of Drongawn Lough before turning
northward, a boat was awaiting him there that would take him to safety—perhaps to
Scotland or to another Irish province where he could hide. But as he galloped
away, the British soldiers spotted him and gave pursuit along the footpath
above the craggy rocks. As he was passing over a hill, he was struck down from
his horse, where he was quickly captured.
The soldiers dragged him to a nearby rock, forced him to the
ground and beheaded him.
On the footpath where his white horse traveled, there lies
the image of a horse’s hoof embedded in the rock, and on the rock where Friar
Hegarty was beheaded, the sign of the cross formed. It was said that his head
bounced nine times after his beheading, and each spot in which it landed
remains bare to this day, unable to grow any vegetation, wild or planted. The
rock itself is known as Friar Hegarty’s Rock.
Over the centuries, a white horse has been spotted galloping
over the footpath, sometimes alone and other times with the ghost of Friar
Hegarty atop it. The color of the horse is said to be otherworldly, illuminated
even on the darkest of nights.
In the early 1990’s, some 360 years after Friar Hegarty’s
murder, four teenage boys were quad biking dangerously close to the cliff’s
40-foot drop to the sea below. As they rounded the wild coastal route in the
dark of night, a white horse suddenly appeared in front of them as if out of nowhere,
rising high on its hind legs, its forelegs pawing the skies as its ethereal
white coat illuminated the path in front of them. It so startled the lads that
they pulled their four-wheeled motorcycle to an abrupt stop. And there, as they
watched, the white horse leapt off the cliff’s edge but as they rushed to see
whether it had landed on the craggy, deadly rocks below, the horse simply
vanished into thin air.
Had the boys not stopped, they most certainly would have
careened off the cliffs themselves to become impaled on the rocks below as they
jutted upward from the sea.
And so it is that the white horse sent to save Friar Hegarty
continues its mission today in saving others from certain death; unable to save
the Friar, it is forever connected to him on his final day.
Burt Castle was built during the 16th century in
Ulster at the southern edge of the Inishowen Peninsula. Inishowen had been in
the hands of the O’Doherty Clan for more than a thousand years and Burt Castle
was only one of several castles that dotted the peninsula. It has seen its
share of conflicts, intrigue… and murder. And throughout the centuries there
have been numerous ghostly sightings, even today among the ruins.
Here is how I describe the castle in Clans and Castles,
the first book in the historical Checkmate
series—then keep reading for the stories behind the ghostly sightings:
Burt Castle rested
at the southern edge of the Inishowen Peninsula like a silent sentinel keeping
watch over the O’Doherty landholdings. It was constructed during the reign of Henry
VIII and was considered a more contemporary style than earlier Irish castles.
Built of the same limestone and rock that was found in abundance throughout
Ulster, it rose three stories above the ground and at two of its four corners
stood towers that reached another two stories before giving way to parapets
that afforded a spectacular view of the Irish countryside—and even Derry, which
was a only a few miles away.
Each wall was
between four and five feet thick, the towers dotted with perforations for
dozens of harkbus, along with larger openings for cannons.
There were two more stories below ground,
comprised of dungeons, an armory and soldiers’ barracks and offices, eventually
giving way to a stone wall that surrounded the castle and grounds, which was in
turn encircled by a mote. With Ireland’s violent history of invasion ranging
from the Vikings and Normans to the Spaniards and English—not to mention
battles between clans—it was a formidable fortress built to withstand assault.
During the 16th century when Burt Castle one of
the O’Doherty men seduced a young girl from the neighboring area—quite possibly
Derry, which was only a short distance away. The lovers met as lovers do, and
the girl gave up her heart and her body to the nobleman. Soon after, she
discovered she was pregnant but when she informed her lover, he absolved
himself from all responsibility.
She wanted marriage and all it meant for her unborn child:
legitimacy, protection and a place in the O’Doherty clan. When he refused to
marry her and turned his back on her, she became increasingly distraught. Over
the preceding century, Ireland had turned from its original pagan religions to
Catholicism and a bastard child would create a lifetime of hell for both the
mother and the child.
So on one night as the moon shone full and bright, she walked
along the shore of the Lough Swilly, eventually wading in and drowning herself
and her unborn child in its frigid waters.
Her father made a vow to avenge his daughter’s death and her
undoing by the O’Doherty kinsman and he discovered through workers at Burt
Castle exactly where her lover slept: in the vaulted, mural chamber on the
first floor near the southwest tower. On one dark, lonely night when the clouds
roiled and tumbled overhead, he tricked his way into the castle at the
southwest tower and climbed from the ground floor to the first elevated story by
way of the spiraled turnpike staircase and into the lover’s chamber where he
slept.
There, the father withdrew his long knife, sharpened for the
occasion of avenging his daughter’s death, and stabbed the O’Doherty kinsman repeatedly.
To ensure that he was beyond resuscitation, he then dragged his body to the
narrow window. Pushing it through, he tried to aim it for the craggy rocks at
the base of the castle but it fell instead on a patch of grass close to the
cold stone wall.
From that time forward, each time the moon is full, the
ghost of a young girl is seen walking the shoreline of the Lough Swilly, her
distraught wails caught on the winds and carried for miles, only fading when
the figure wades into the water and disappears under the waves.
And on those nights, the swans rise up from their positions
along the banks and fly to Burt Castle, where they begin wailing at the base of
the old southwest tower where her lover was plunged to his death, a patch that
even today grass will not grow…
Burt Castle figures prominently in Clans and Castles,
the first book in the Checkmate
series, and is haunted by more than one ghost… The book is a three-time award
nominee: 2018 International Book Awards, 2017 USA Best Book Awards and 2017
Readers Choice Awards. Click here to
read more and purchase the book with a free autograph or buy from amazon. It is
also available in all fine bookstores around the world.
This is the second in a series of blogs for book clubs and discussion groups who are reading my book, A Thin Slice of Heaven. Weigh in below, or send me an email through my website letting me know the results of your book club or group discussion.
My May online book tour is well underway and I am giving away a beautiful Celtic butterfly suncatcher to one lucky follower. All you have to do is follow the tour, leave comments and click on the Rafflecopter icon. The more comments you leave, the better your chances of winning.
So what is the significance of the Celtic butterfly suncatcher?
In A Thin Slice of Heaven, Charleigh loves butterflies. In the scene that follows, she is in the village with Sean during the snowstorm. The streets are empty and the shops are closed. They've dismounted from the horse so she can peek into the windows of the shops.
“Look,” she said, pointing to a sun
catcher in the window. “A butterfly.”
His voice was soft and though she turned
her gaze back to the sun catcher, she could feel his eyes remaining on her.
“You love butterflies, don’t you now?”
“I do. How did you know?”
He shrugged. “From the way in which your
face lit when you spied it.”
“It is beautiful, isn’t it?” She stared
at the hand-painted butterfly with its alternating rows of yellow and orange
fringed with black. “It has meaning, you know. It’s like the metamorphosis of
life in one tiny creature. They start their existence as a tiny egg on a leaf,
so miniscule that most people wouldn’t even know it was there. Then they hatch
into a caterpillar, all chubby body and spindly legs. Quite ugly, in fact.” She
chuckled. “They eat and they eat and when they can eat no more, they attach
themselves to a branch and just hang there. From the outside, it looks like
nothing is happening. But the metamorphosis is taking place on the inside.
Until finally, the wings emerge, all soft and gooey. The caterpillar pumps
blood into the wings until they grow large and strong, capable of making it fly
away.”
“I have heard,” Sean said thoughtfully,
“that every soul’s journey takes place first on the inside before it is
manifested on the outside.”
“Exactly!” She whirled around to face
him. “You’re the only one I’ve ever met who understood that.”
“Not the only one, I’m quite sure.”
“Oh, but you are. Most people would have
heard my explanation and thought it nothing more than whimsical ramblings. You
understood.”
He pointed toward the sun catcher. “You see the
pattern around the butterfly? That symbolizes the Celtic cycle of life. Though
you might search, you will never find a beginning nor will you find an end.”
The butterfly symbolizes Charleigh's own transformation in the book. When she arrives at the castle, she is tired, overworked and anxious. When her husband sends a text saying he's leaving her for another woman, she imagines the woman to be much younger and much more beautiful than she. But as the story progresses, she learns that her soul is beautiful. The Celtic design depicting the endless cycle of life is also symbolic. She learns through Sean that Life does not end when the physical body ceases to exist. The soul's energy is transformed and carries on. When they stop to eat a picnic lunch that one of the employees of the castle packed for her, they have a discussion about this cycle:
She offered him a thick slice of ham.
“Can you eat food like this?” she asked, her brow furrowing.
In response, he bit a chunk out of it
and closed his eyes in appreciation as he chewed. When he opened them, she was
watching him curiously. “Aye,” he said. He held up the remainder of the slice.
“When you’re in a purely physical form, you think of everything around you as
being substantive. Yet, it is all an illusion. Everything is made up of energy
of some sort or another.” He waggled the ham. “So I am merely joining its
energy with my own.”
“But—I mean—” Her eyes traveled to his
torso. She felt a blush warming her cheeks and she diverted her gaze to her own
slice of ham.
He chuckled. “Ah, but you’re wondering
what happens to it once it passes my lips.” He took another bite and chewed for
a moment before answering. “I taste it more keenly. I feel the texture more
deeply. I am conscious of where it came from, in a purely esoteric sort of way.
Then its energy becomes intertwined with my own. Without the physical organs
that a living human being possesses, the energy simply flows out of me—” he
held his arm up as if she could see a vapor rising out of it “—and it remains
one with the universe.”
“That is way too deep for me to
comprehend.”
“Ah, but comprehend you will. Some day.”
“And the pig?” She held her slice a
short distance from her mouth and debated whether she wanted it now.
“Ah, the pig lives on. As I said, there
is no death. Only transitions.”
Spoiler Alert : If you have not read the book yet, don't read beyond this point! For those who have read the book, you know that these discussions mean something far more. Charleigh is herself transitioning, though she does not yet know it. She is transitioning from a physical, human life in the current day to the other side of the veil. She is in a cocoon herself, believing that her life consists only of the small bubble each of us finds ourselves living, and yet she doesn't yet know how close she is to breaking out of that cocoon and becoming transformed as a spirit with no beginning and no end. The cycle of Life is apparent within and around her, and Sean is gently leading her to discover this realization herself.
You can purchase A Thin Slice of Heaven in any book
store. It is also available in all major eBook formats. Find it here on
amazon in paperback or in a Kindle version.
May 1 was the official launch for my 19th book release, A Thin Slice of Heaven.
She had arranged to meet
her husband in Northern Ireland for a second honeymoon, but when Charleigh
arrives at the remote castle, she receives a message that he won’t be
coming—and that he’s leaving her for another woman. Stranded for the weekend by
a snowstorm that has blocked all access to the castle, she finds herself three
thousand miles from home in a country she knows nothing about.
She is soon joined by
Sean Bracken, the great-grandson of Laird Bracken, the original owner of the
castle, and she finds herself falling quickly and madly in love with him.
There’s just one problem: he’s dead.
As the castle begins to
come alive with secrets from centuries past, she finds herself trapped between
parallel worlds. Caught up in a mass haunting, she can no longer recognize the
line between the living and the dead. Now she’s discovering that her appearance
there wasn’t by accident—and is more sinister than she ever suspected.
THE INSPIRATION
The
inspiration for A Thin Slice of Heaven
came from two books: What Dreams May Come
and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.
Years
ago, I read What Dreams May Come by
Richard Matheson. It was a book unlike any other I’d ever read. It is the story
of a couple in love; their lives together cut short by the sudden death of the
husband. But that is where the story begins, as we are led through the veil to
another realm. The concept has fascinated me for years and I particularly find
it intriguing when I discover a story from a child who remembers past lives and
things they could never have known—or those who encountered near death
experiences and returned to tell fantastic stories of the other side.
I
also love The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by
R.A. Dick. Though it is a short story, it brings to life a home on the coast of
England that is haunted by its original owner, a sea captain. However, there
were two things that made the book (and subsequent movie) feel incomplete to
me: first, when Mrs. Muir turns to another romantic interest, and second, that
her relationship with the captain did not go far enough.
It
left me wondering what if? What if it
was possible to transcend the veil between the living and the dead, and have a
relationship with a spirit that was as real as two humans? What if, despite the
fact that the man had died a hundred and fifty years prior, it became the most
satisfying and loving relationship one could imagine?
I
am a stickler for research so of course I began researching spirit sightings and why some remain on earth to
haunt their old homes despite the centuries that follow.
I
also researched the three stages of dying, which had originally been told to me
by hospice personnel when a dear friend was passing. I placed it all together
into this romantic suspense: a living being in more need of romance than even
she could realize; a spirit able to pull her beyond the veil; a mass haunting
reconstructing a battle that killed and wounded many; and a love that transcends
through time itself.
A recent survey cited that 91% of all people believe in ghosts. Do you? Leave a comment and let me know!
I will be giving away a beautiful Celtic suncatcher, which I describe in A Thin Slice of Heaven. The metamorphosis of the butterfly coupled with the endless cycle of life depicted by the Celtic design around the butterfly, are central themes of my book.
For a chance to win this suncatcher, all you need to do is follow my tour and comment. The more times you comment, the better your chances of winning!
Here's a list of the tour stops scheduled through the end of this month:
